Chris Musillo on Nurse and Allied Health Immigration

I am pleased to announce the launch of MusilloUnkenholt Immigration Law! Cindy Unkenholt and I combine decades of experience with a sincere passion for immigration law. I wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude that you have followed all of my Blog postings over the years. I will no longer be posting to the previous Blog site. I would also like to thank Sam and the ILW.com for their continued production of this Blog, which focuses its postings on the intersection of nursing, allied healthcare and immigration.

Cindy and I are pleased that we're being joined by our dedicated and knowledgeable staff. The partners and staff of MusilloUnkenholt believe that the practice of immigration law is unlike any other!

As I've mentioned a few times in recent posts, the conventional wisdom in Washington is that the best chance for the ENRSA is for the ENSRA to be written into the forthcoming CIR and then CIR to be passed.

Whether ENSRA eventually written into the CIR is an open question at this time and likely will not be decided until CIR looks like it will eventually be passed. At this point, the best that we can do is monitor the progress of CIR. Recently several high ranking politicians, including the President, have ventured their guesses on the likelihood of CIR.

On Wednesday Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is the Chair of Immigration Subcommittee and has always taken a leading role in immigration matters spoke to the 6th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference Migration Policy Institute. In all, Schumer announced seven principles that he said would form the basis for the legislation he intends to introduce by the fall:

1. Illegal immigration is wrong, and a primary goal of comprehensive immigration reform must be to dramatically curtail future illegal immigration.

2. Operational control of our borders--through significant additional increases in infrastructure, technology, and border personnel--must be achieved within a year of enactment of legislation.

3. A biometric-based employer verification system--with tough enforcement and auditing--is necessary to significantly diminish the job magnet that attracts illegal aliens to the United States and to provide certainty and simplicity for employers.
4. All illegal aliens present in the United States on the date of enactment of our bill must quickly register their presence with the United States Government--and submit to a rigorous process of converting to legal status and earning a path to citizenship--or face imminent deportation.

5. Family reunification is a cornerstone value of our immigration system. By dramatically reducing illegal immigration, we can create more room for both family immigration and employment-based immigration.

6. We must encourage the world's best and brightest individuals to come to the United States and create the new technologies and businesses that will employ countless American workers, but must discourage businesses from using our immigration laws as a means to obtain temporary and less-expensive foreign labor to replace capable American workers; and finally

7. We must create a system that converts the current flow of unskilled illegal immigrants into the United States into a more manageable and controlled flow of legal immigrants who can be absorbed by our economy.

President Obama also held a meeting with leading Congress and Senatorial leaders. The President's remarks tended to focus on an enhanced website by USCIS, although he reiterated that his office is "fully behind an effort to achieve comprehensive immigration reform. I have asked my Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Janet Napolitano, to lead up a group that is going to be working with a leadership group from both the House and the Senate to start systematically working through these issues from the congressional leaders and those with the relevant jurisdiction. What we've heard is through a process of regular order, they would like to work through these issues both in the House and in the Senate."

Earlier this week the USCIS announced that it was recommencing I-140 Premium Processing, effective June 29. Most Registered Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Occupational Therapy cases will now be eligible for Premium Processing. Under the Premium Processing program, the USCIS guarantees that it will evaluate the case within 15 days.

However, Premium Processing does nothing to alleviate the retrogression backlog, which can only be solved by an Act of Congress. Premium Processing is advisable for some EB2 healthcare petitions, which are not subject to the retrogression backlog. Unfortunately, most Registered Nursing cases do not qualify for the EB2 category. Some Physical Therapist and Occupational Therapists' cases will qualify for EB2, if the position demands a Masters degree for entry into the job.

In my last post I wrote of the threat that there would be a Sanders amendment to the Travel Promotion Act. The amendment would have increased the fees that H-1B Petitioners are charged for that process. This would have greatly impacted healthcare immigration focused businesses and beneficiaries. The H-1B has been a bigger part of every company's immigration strategy since the 2007 retrogression of Schedule A workers.

It appears that this threat to H-1B petitioners has been avoided. Yesterday word circled through the business immigration that Sen. Sanders has agreed to withhold offering the amendment. Many leading House and Senate members personally reached out to Sen. Sanders.

The crux of their argument to Sen. Sanders was that if Comprehensive Immigration Reform is going to take root this fall, then piecemeal legislation such as H-1B fee increase would be counterproductive.

Unfortunately, this means that efforts to pass the Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act (HR 2536) are not likely to be successful this spring/summer. Representatives and Senators seem to be of the opinion that the ENSRA and other piecemeal legislation can be taken up in a comprehensive package this autumn. Nevertheless efforts to pass it sooner than the autumn remain underway.

Organizations such as Compete America have already begun to work against these fee increases, arguing that an increase in fees will continue to make America less competitive, as talented international workers find options like Europe more accommodating and visa friendly.

I've already explained why arguments that the H-1B is used to "steal" US jobs is a fallacy. Likewise, most prominent economists contend that in modern economies jobs are created when talented workers are imported to supply shortage occupations. At some point I hope that Congressional leaders listen to economists when creating economic policy. To do otherwise is to open themselves up to xenophobic criticism.